In Another World
by Kaz1167
Summary: A collection of the various Legend of Korra and Makorra AUs I've written. Ratings will vary between chapters, but will most likely stay between K and T
1. Wildberry (Childhood AU)

When she's eight, she moves to Republic City. Most children would be scared of the change, scared of a new school and new kids and new teachers, but not Korra. Korra can't wait for new _everything_.

On her first day of school, she sits next to an energetic green-eyed boy and offers to trade her snack with him. He won't trade, but he'll share if she shares her cheese crackers, and they're inseparable after that. Her now best friend, Bolin, has just turned seven, which makes her older than him, which means she gets to decide on their games during recess ("_Duh,_" she tells him, hands on her hips). He doesn't seem to mind.

During her first play-date at Bolin's house, she meets his mom, a graceful, stunning woman who gives her an extra cookie after they're done playing pirates outside and has the sweetest, richest voice she's ever heard. She meets his dad, who makes her think of a mountain, with his peaked hair, giant shoulders and booming laugh a lot just like her own dad's. And she meets his brother Mako, a boy with golden eyes who is one year older than her, always wears a red scarf, and pouts a lot for someone who's nine. He sneaks an extra cookie away for his brother when his mom isn't paying attention (but Korra is) and she decides he's nice, but kind of weird.

And kind of cute. Kind of.

Mako reluctantly starts playing with them during recess, and he's still quiet and sort of weird. He begrudgingly pushes her on the swing one day and Bolin whines about Korra stealing his brother, but she just laughs as she flies higher and higher. Korra is pretty sure they're soulmates (he just doesn't know it yet).

On a Saturday afternoon, Korra sits at the kitchen table with Mako as Bolin plays with the new red-orange tabby kitten his dad just brought home (Bolin's been asking for a pet for ages and names him Pabu before Mako even gets a chance to suggest anything).

Mako's mom hands him a juice box, a new wildberry flavor, and Korra watches with interest as he stabs the little plastic straw into the pouch. Mako eyes her wearily (because she may have pulled a prank on him once before, smashing his juice box in his hands as he took a sip and watching it explode all over him), before setting his drink down.

"Do you want to try some? It's pretty good."

Blue eyes wide, she nods and he slides it across the table. She takes a sip of the purplish drink, barely paying attention to the sweet and tangy flavor, before sliding it back to him

"Thanks for sharing your juice box with me."

He glances over at her and takes another sip, kicking his feet back and forth under the table.

"My dad says that means we're married."

His eyes widen and he coughs, spitting purple liquid all over the table. Korra practically falls out of her chair laughing because _it was only a joke_ (kind of) and prances to the living room to play with Bolin and Pabu.

Seventeen years later, when he gets down on one knee, hands her a wildberry juice box, and asks if they can "make it official" whilst blushing like a madman, she practically falls out of her chair laughing again, toppling him over, and covers him in kisses.


	2. The Boy Who Overcame Time (LokInuyasha)

She hears the sound of a branch snapping, frustration with her muted human hearing and her inability to locate its exact location coursing through her. What was taking him so long? He had agreed not to stray too far from the campsite while collecting firewood, but it felt like he'd been gone forever. She's about to call out his name (it's so inconvenient not being able to track his scent), when he stumbles into the clearing, branches and logs nearly spilling out of his grasp.

"The wood's still pretty wet from this afternoon's storm, but I tried to find as much dry stuff as I could." He builds the scaffolding for their fire and shoots a little flame into the center. Her mood is always sour on her full-human nights—the inexplicable loss of both her half-demon abilities _and_ her bending leaving her in a particularly vulnerable position—but for some reason, watching him bend that tiny flame pisses her off more than it should. They have been traveling for almost two weeks—Asami and Bolin had stayed behind to help Katara ward off an influx of demons in her village—and two weeks was just… too much time alone with the fire-bending boy. But despite her flaring annoyance with him (among other things), she holds her tongue and matches his casual comment with a huff and silence. No need to send her best method of defense against attacks brooding into the forest.

She hates these nights. It is during these moments of darkness, her senses dull and her bending absent, that she curses whatever gods decided_ she_ should be the Avatar. As the daughter of a powerful Water Bender and a beautiful InuYoukai, her life would have been complicated enough, but the discovery that her body housed the Avatar spirit was both a blessing and a curse. Her 'Avatar lineage' was a string of _fully_ human Avatars; never before had the Avatar spirit appeared in a half-demon (but the fact that her existence alone had ruined countless countryside myths about demons being "too impure" to house the Avatar spirit still makes her laugh). Caught in an uncomfortable limbo, she had faced the frozen smiles of prejudiced townsfolk who would have otherwise tried to kill her; it's a tense safety only afforded by the title she carries. She hates the forced pleasantries almost as much as she's sure those people hate her, but it's her duty as the Avatar to act as the bridge between their world and the spirit world, and she tries (despite her occasional failings) to do just that.

"So what's it like?" He speaks with his head down, watching the fire he's stoking, like he's worried the question might offend her. It doesn't, not really, but she's already wound too tightly and ready to snap.

"I'm just human, so I'd imagine it's exactly what you feel every day. Incompetent, weak, a bit jerky—" Her tone is unnecessarily biting and she regrets her rushed words the second she says them.

"So you're admitting that you're being a jerk right now?"

"Mako…" She tries to fight it; she can feel her eyebrow twitch as she tries to restrain her temper.

"It's not my fault you can't put together a good insult!"

"Shut up, Mako!" She shouts over the fire at him. For a second, she wonders if fighting off demons and lecherous wanderers in the forest is worth the risk if it means getting to ditch him right here. She can tell the boy across from her isn't ready to let go of this stupid fight and she kind of hates him for it, even though she knows she started it. She hates that stupid smirk on his face, like he's just waiting for the right moment to whip out his stupid insult. She hates his stupid, taunting voice and his stupid eyes and how…

How she can _see_ the frustration burn out, like she has somehow caught him off guard and doused a bucket of water on his flame with her temporarily blue-eyed glance. She hates how she feels when his eyes meet hers and she _hates _the stupid way his eyes glow in the firelight and the sharp angles of his face and his stupid, _stupid_ lips.

She hates him.

Really.

"Sorry, I'm just…tense on nights like this." She watches him from the corner of her eye, his gaze focused too intently on the fire in front of them.

"Do you, uh, want a back rub or something?"

She looks directly at him now, feeling her face flush as she sputters. It might just be the fire, but she's pretty sure his face is a few shades darker, too.

"Why would I need—what are you—I don't—"

"You said you were tense!" His face is practically the color of his scarf, and she bets hers is just as red. She thinks—no, she _knows_—this is a horrible, horrible idea, but she stands up, crosses the short distance between them, and plops herself down in front of him. Crossing her arms across her chest, she tries to fight down the flaming heat in her face.

"What are you waiting for, City Boy?"

She hears him clear his throat before she feels his hands hesitantly clasp her shoulders, his thumbs pressing into the stiffness she's been carrying between her shoulder blades for weeks. It feels…nice. Really, _really_ nice.

He doesn't stray from the imagined confines of her upper back until she lets out a puff of air, closes her eyes, and allows her posture to go slack, his hands slowly working down her muscled back. She ignores how good it feels when his hands clasp her waist as he works on a particularly stubborn knot. She pretends her pulse doesn't pick up when his fingers brush against her neck as he pushes her wolftails over her shoulder and out of his way.

She hates him. She hates him. She lov—

"Why do you lose your bending with the new moon?"

She forces her eyelids open and tries to snap out of haze he has induced with his warm hands.

"To be honest, I don't know. I've trained with four different masters and everyone has their own theory, but no one knows what to make of me since I'm the first half-demon Avatar. Tenzin thinks maybe my demon side and the Avatar Spirit are at war, so their ironically inseparable, one always tagging along, hoping to eliminate the other."

"What do you think of that?"

"It's the best theory I've heard so far, I guess. Why, do you have a better idea?"

"I…It's stupid."

"Just spill it already."

"Maybe they're inseparable for another reason."

"And what's that?"

"They're supposed to be opposites, right? Maybe one is drawn to the other. Like magnets."

He's quiet behind her, his hands tracing down her back more so than rubbing it at this point, but she's not about to comment or move away. She likes that idea almost as much as she likes the way his chest feels against her back when she absentmindedly leans against him, her eyelids heavy. He stiffens slightly at the contact before he awkwardly closes his arms around her, but she's too tired to care and too tired to move.

"Magnets, huh?"

"Even though they're opposites, when one pulls, the other follows."

His words are warm against her human ear and she likes the feel of his head resting against hers as she closes her eyes. His arms seem to have tightened around her too, and even her human nose picks up on a smell distinctly _him_, like embers and forest and warmth. She doesn't want to leave the comfort and security that she always manages to find with him, not tonight, not tomorrow morning, not ever.

"How does your back feel? Less tense?"

"Yeah, thank you. Mako?"

"Hmm?"

"You smell kind of nice."

"You've told me before that you hate my scent. That I 'reek of the city' and burnt noodles." He manages to quietly laugh as he replies, but she can hear the hesitant, questioning tone hidden beneath it.

She's so tired. Tired from the stresses that come with her human nights, tired from questioning why she is what she is, tired from telling herself _they_ could never work and desperately trying to convince herself of that, too.

_"I was lying."_

He doesn't respond and she thinks that's okay as she feels herself slipping into sleep. Something wraps under her and she's weightless, and she's moving with him. She smells fur, hears his voice saying something to Naga, before she's on the ground with him again, her back still against his chest, his arms still around her.

"Goodnight, Korra."

She tries to reply, but can't seem to remember how to say words and opts for snuggling further into his arms. For the first time, she sleeps peacefully on the night of the new moon.

_Goodnight, Mako._


	3. Fabulous Bending Bros (Stripper Mako AU)

"Asami, tell me again, why did I let you drag me to this strip club?"

"Because you've been under a ton of pressure and need to relax! Just have fun tonight! Besides, I _really_ think you're going to enjoy this."

Korra looks at the glaring sign over the door to the club: "The Fabulous Bending Brothers" flashing in neon green and red, reminding her of Christmas in some weirdly twisted way. Well, maybe that was fitting; she was going to be seeing _packages,_ after all…

"Come on, Korra, let's go get a seat."

The air is heavy with traces of smoke and the smell of alcohol, already full of chattering customers, but they find two spots in the corner of the room, still close to the stage, as Asami leans in to half-whisper in Korra's ear

"The blue-eyed guy isn't bad, but he's pretty thin compared to the others and sort of seems like a jerk. The green-eyed guy is _super_ muscular and has a really nice smile, but I think you'll want to watch for the one with the gold eyes and red scarf."

Korra looks over at her friend with a suspicious glance, appraising the oh-so-prim looking girl beside her.

"Asami, just how many times have you been here…?"

The lights in the club dim as a voice booms overhead, followed by music, and a spotlight centers on the stage. The curtain rises.

Five men stand with their backs to them, and Korra curiously searches for the red scarf, eyes landing on the man dressed in a police officer's uniform. God, these costumes are cheesy, but she can tell under the silly outfit that he's built just the way she likes: strong and lithe, all edges and sharp definition. Asami seems fond of the guy two over, the most muscular of the five men, the one with black hair and green eyes (Korra assumes), but she has no clue as to what his costume is supposed to be, wearing a blue, fur-lined over-coat and furry boots.

The music changes and the men move in some synchronized dance, swaying their hips back and forth slowly to the beat, and the crowd explodes, high-pitched cheers (and a few lower ones) piercing Korra's ears. It seems to be some kind of introduction, one man turning around at a time, the crowd's cheering surging with each name called (_Amon! Bolin! Tahno! Hasook!_), but she's only curious about the last.

_Mako!_

He turns and smirks, tipping his officer hat. Those eyes, that jaw—Oh yes, he's _definitely_ going to be her favorite.

The music picks up, beat pulsing, and suddenly it's a whole lot of hip thrusting and body rolling and _damn_ those muscles. He's honestly not the best dancer or the most entertaining of the five, but as he slides off his jacket and pulls the white tank top up over his head, he rolls his hips forward, abs rippling as the motion flows through his upper body, and Korra understands why he has so many fangirls shrieking at his every move.

The clothing comes off piece by piece, and she swears all the guys glance at their corner more than anywhere else, winking, smirking, and blowing kisses, which Asami happily gives back. She really needs to talk with her friend about the frequency of her visits to this "fun club she's been to once or twice."

In the midst of the performance, Korra can't help but notice the way Mako glances at her a few too many times for it to just be a coincidence, and she _really_ can't help but notice his amazing biceps and chiseled abs and the "v" cut revealed by his dangerously low-riding pants. He plays with the buckle at his waist, undoes it, but leaves it in place, and Korra finds herself wanting to pull the belt off because she's not a patient person and she's a bit too curious about what's lurking under those pants. Mako tosses his hat off as he crosses the stage to where Asami and Korra sit, dipping down to their level.

"Asami, who's your friend?" She likes the sound of his voice, even if he is half-shouting over the blaring music.

He knows her name? Seriously, just what did Asami do in her free time…

"Korra. Korra, this is Mako."

Shit, he's even hotter up close.

"Nice to meet you, Officer."

His gold eyes light up, and a teasing grin slowly crosses his face.

"Asami, stay after the show. Bolin wants to see you and I would like to get to know your friend, ok?"

Asami nods, smiling, and Mako winks at them as he stands to leave. When he turns, his hands are working at the zipper of his pants, and he holds Korra's gaze as he takes his pants off in an inhumanly graceful, devastatingly sexy way. Korra _tries_ not to fixate on the generous way he fills out those tight, red briefs, but _shit_, he's gorgeous. He looks away (there are other customers, after all) and she stares at _things_ previously covered for a particularly long moment when she feels someone's eyes on her, blushing slightly when she realizes she's been caught by the proud owner of that perfectly shaped ass. He raises his eyebrows at her and smirks, but she shakes her momentary embarrassment. Crossing her arms and grinning in response, she's more than happy to play the over-confident, cocky game (her eyes flick downward shamelessly) he's started.


	4. Makorra Pirates AU

I requested 3 Sentence AU Prompts on tumblr. The next four mini-chapters are my responses to the prompts sent to me. :)

_Makorra Pirate AU_

Word Count: 268 words

Rating: K+ / T

* * *

"It's bad luck to have a woman on a ship," he tells his brother when his over-eager green eyes and booming voice announce the arrival of their new crew member, who's pushing past him and onto _his_ ship without invitation, laughing about how she can't believe her new captain still listens to "silly superstitions."

He's convinced he's right when her ill-taken advice directs them into a storm that nearly overturns his beaten ship and later when she pickpockets the captain of the Armed Forces in the bay of Isla de Republica, who curses and vows to capture them as they rush their way out of the harbor while she just laughs with Bolin about how red-faced the man was when chasing them (and Mako seriously contemplates abandoning her in the next town they visit).

But the changing winds and tumultuous waves conspire against him, send him careening into her figuratively (he's never had his attempts at avoidance thwarted so adamantly by one person, her deliberate invasions into his private cabin with half-thought through suggestions to his plans both annoying and yet, somewhat pleasant), then literally (his once steady feet stumble with even weak rolling waves when he's near her and she's always too close in the narrow passages of his ship, her form firm yet yielding under his hands, her lips a warm and soft contrast to the heated pressure behind her kiss, her eyes a shade of blue he wants to sail in for as long as she'll let him), and only then does he realize that his luck is changing for the better, superstitions be damned.


	5. Makorra Genderbent AU

_Makorra Genderbent AU_ for "3 Sentence AU" Prompts

Word Count: 213 words

Rating: K+

* * *

"Korra's such a girly name," Mako laughs out breathlessly as she flips her sparring partner with the flick of her ankle, watching as his blue eyes widen in surprise before his broad back connects with the floor, a low-toned "oof" popping from his lips like a bursting balloon.

She stands above him in victory, flicking the sweat from her forehead and tightening the band holding her sleek black hair in place, when she's upended, a hand grasping her ankle and pulling the earth out from under her as she nearly crashes upon her not-so-vicious attacker, her quick reflexes just barely kicking in and allowing her to roll to his side, escaping a grasp that would lead to admitting defeat (because despite her speed, he's _just barely_ stronger and can keep her pinned down even after a good fight).

"Well, I like to think I made up for it," he says lightheartedly with a close-to-cocky wink before he pushes himself into a sitting position; Mako's gaze travels from his hands held up in defeat, to his muscled arms relaxed upon his knees, to his firm chest expanding with every panting breath, and she curses the little voice in her head that admits _yes, you certainly did_ before she stands and offers him a hand.


	6. Makorra Coffee Shop AU

_Makorra Coffee Shop AU_ for "3 Sentence AU" Prompts

Words Count: 227 words

Rating: K+

* * *

The heavy aroma of roasting beans and baking cinnamon sweetbreads escapes into the small break room when Mako clocks into work and sees a new name (thick characters, scrawled sloppily in blue ink) penned in next to his on the schedule.

He doesn't like the idea of having a new coworker: "new" means training someone who will inevitably hold up the morning line with her little to no knowledge of how to work the espresso machine; "new" means remaking orders the trainee will inevitably mix up or mess up; "new" means inevitably answering pointless, "small talk" questions about his life and feigning interest when he asks a few in response out of courtesy—he'd rather just deal with the stress of being short-handed, he mentally gripes, as he pushes through the swinging door to the counter.

But the blue-eyed girl already knows how to work the espresso machine and keeps the drink orders straight even during the late afternoon rush with a smirk on her face and clever quip in her mouth when he hovers, and (as creepy as it sounds) he kind of likes the way she smells like the outdoors in the midst of coffee beans and baked goods, and, inevitably, the new name scrawled in blue ink next to his becomes familiar on his tongue and warms his skin like his favorite coffee blend.


	7. Makorra Real World AU

_Makorra "real world" AU_ for "3 Sentence AU' Prompts

Word Count: 248 words

Rating: K

* * *

She's been watching him for the last two weeks: he gets on the bus three stops after she does and takes his seat as close to the front as he can; he doesn't make small talk with whoever may sit next to him, opting for muffled music loud enough to hear two seats over emanating from his earbuds and a finger tucked into a textbook (sometimes economics, sometimes political science, sometimes the biology textbook she recognizes as the same as her section's own) that he'll read for the rest of their ride from their grungy edge of the city to their university.

He's made prolonged eye contact with her a total for four times (three times too many to have not acted, in her opinion), so in the third week of watching, when he climbs on board, headphones in and biology textbook in hand, she switches from her spot to his and watches the sharp stare she's been wanting to explore shift from appraisal to vague interest when she introduces herself, mentions they're in the same section of Biology 101, jokes about their eighty-year-old, hippie professor that gets their own course material confused.

He doesn't say much in response to her banter and she considers the entire effort a complete failure, walking to their shared class in a semi-strained silence, until the next morning rolls around and he boards the bus three stops after she does, earbuds and textbook absent, and sits in the open seat beside her.


End file.
